


stories

by euriele



Category: Red vs. Blue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-27
Updated: 2014-09-27
Packaged: 2018-02-19 00:49:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2368106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/euriele/pseuds/euriele
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes, the best way to cheer someone up is with dumb stories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	stories

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MistyMoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistyMoon/gifts).



You’re face down in the snow, a slow burn in your lower stomach. You can hear the twins humming at the back of your mind, hear them telling you that you have to move. You can’t move. It hurts too much.

Someone’s walking towards you. You twist your head, see the reflective golden visor, the flaming figure shimmering beside. The twins try to warn you, but it’s too late. Maine hoists you up by the throat, his free hand going to the back of your head.

He pulls the A.I. from your skull. You scream -

_Hey!_

Your eyes snap open.

"Hey, you okay?"

Epsilon.

He’s hovering just in front of you, arms crossed over his chest and head tilted. You’re aware that you’re sweating, that your hair is stuck to your forehead and the back of your neck. You sit up, brush the locks back from your face and sigh.

"C’mon, Carolina. Speak to me."

"I’m…" You take a deep breath. "I’m okay, Epsilon."

"You sure?"

He’s in your head; he knows you’re not okay.

So you shake your head instead of lying again.

Epsilon sighs and drops his hands down to rest on his hips. “You, uh… Wanna talk about it?”

You think about Maine, about Eta and Iota’s screams as he ripped them from your skull - Epsilon actually winced when he was implanted, when he saw how deep the scars were -

"No."

He nods. “So, what do you wanna do?”

Sleep, you think. You want to sleep peacefully for once. You want a full night where you don’t think about Maine ripping Eta and Iota from your skull, where you don’t dream about your father toying with the gun you left, where you don’t remember your little brother screaming as Epsilon unraveled in his mind -

Epsilon winces at that.

"Talk to me," you say. "Just… talk to me."

"About?"

"Anything, I don’t care. Just talk."

"Uh…" Epsilon dances from foot to foot. "Well, uh… Did I ever tell you about the first time Caboose killed me? Or, well, killed Alpha?"

"No."

"Well, Caboose had just shown up right? And I - Alpha, whatever - was getting annoyed by him. I sent him to guard that goddamn flag and Donut managed to get in and steal the fucking thing. Tucker and I chased him down, but then Simmons and Grif show up in their Warthog so we take cover behind some boulder. Caboose shows up with our tank and Grif and Simmons almost piss themselves trying to get away and I’m thinking: fuck yeah! We beat the Reds! Then Caboose fucking shoots at me! Just kills me like that!"

You smirk. It sounds like something Caboose would do, to be honest.

"I came back as a ghost and -"

"A ghost?"

"What now?"

"You actually thought you were a ghost?" You’re still smirking.

"Well, yeah."

"It never occurred to you to check your body and see that it was animatronic?"

"Uh…"

"Wow, Church."

You’ve learnt that he responds better to calling him Church than Epsilon.

"Hey! We’re dumbasses, remember?" he says, holding his hands up. "You said so yourself."

You snort. Brush your hair back from your face.

"Did I ever tell you about the time I got Grif to eat a rock?"

And so it goes on. Grif eating rocks, Tucker’s alien baby, their time travelling escapades with Wyoming, dumb Capture the Flag tactics that ended in members of Blue team being captured and forced to stand outside the Red base in nothing but their helmets for an hour. Just dumb, little stories that make you smile and calm your heart.

You try to remember the last time you smiled this much. It was a long time ago, before the Sarcophagus mission that started the downwards spiral of your life.

"You got any dumb stories?" Epsilon asks. He’s sat down, cross legged with his arms resting on his knees. Your own hand is threaded through your hair, pushing the long locks back off your face.

"A few," you say, smiling fondly at the memory of the Freelancers.

"Share."

You sit up a bit straighter, rest your back against the wall. “Well, there was one time were York and Wash were having a contest. They wanted to see who could prank Maine best and get away with it. Wash only won because York drew a moustache and monocle on Maine’s helmet whilst he slept and Maine put him through a wall. Wash was the only one Maine didn’t mind. Well, Wash and I.”

You smile at the memory of Maine. He was always fond of you Church kids.

"I had a drinking contest with South once," you say. "I managed to knock back thirty shots before she decided that yes, I was better at holding liquor than her. And then, since we were both drunk, we ended up kissing. Nothing special, and we never talked about it again.

"York lost a bet to me once. He had to parade around the MOI in a pair of the laciest lingerie we could find. I hate to admit it, but he wore it better than me.

"Wash used to have this skateboard. He used to ride it around the MOI all the time until he turned the corner and found CT and South making out. Fell straight off it and ended up with a week long concussion."

You carry on and on, minutes turning into hours, and the mouth of the cave you’re sleeping in lights up as the sun slowly rises. Your throat is aching and sore by the end of the night, but you feel so much better, so much happier.

You have a real genuine smile on your face.

"Feeling better?" Epsilon asks when you finally stop.

"A lot." You watch as the cave slowly gets brighter, the sunlight streaming through and just touching your toes. Epsilon’s barely visible under the light.

The two of you watch the sunlight.

"Thank you," you say.

"No problem, sis."

**Author's Note:**

> birthday fic for miles (doc-emily-grey on tumblr)


End file.
